Grouping in PHP using a character - php

Question

I have an array like:
array{
0 => string 'B.E - ECE',
1 => string 'B.E - EEE',
2 => string 'Msc - Maths',
3 => string 'Msc - Social',
}
So how can I make the array into groups like:
B.E. => ECE, EEE
Msc => Maths,Social
?
I want to do it in PHP. Can anybody help me how to achieve it ?

Answer 1

So is your array split by the "-" character?
so it's Key - Value pairs split by commas?
Ok -
(edit: section removed to clarify answer)
Following conversation and some rearrangement of the question, a second try at a solution, with the above assumptions, try this:
$array = array {
0 => string 'B.E - ECE' (length=9)
1 => string 'B.E - EEE' (length=9)
2 => string 'Msc - Maths' (length=11)
3 => string 'Msc - Social' (length=12)
}
foreach ($array as $row){
$piece = explode("-",$row);
$key = $piece[0];
$newArray[$key][] = $piece[1];
unset($piece);
}
unset($row) ///tidy up
This will output two arrays each of two arrays:
$newArray[Msc] = array("Maths","Social");
$newArray[B.E] = array("ECE","EEE");
What I did was cause the Foreach loop to automatically add onto the array if the key exists with $newArray[$key][] so that the values are automatically collected by key, and the key is defined as the first half of the original array values.
Printing:
To print the result:
foreach($newArray as $key=>$newRow){
/// there are two rows in this case, [B.E] and [MSc]
print $key.":<br>";
print "<pre>";
///<pre> HTML tag makes output use linebreaks and spaces. neater.
print_r($newRow);
///alternatively use var_dump($newRow);
print "</pre>";
}
Alternatively if you wish to print a known named variable you can write:
print_r($newArray['B.E']);
Which will print all the data in that array. print_r is very useful.

Answer 2

what you want is php's explode. Not sure if this will give you the perfect answer but should give you an idea of what to do next.
$groupedArray = array();
foreach($array as $row){
$split = explode(" - ",$row);
$groupedArray[] = $split[0];
}
array_unique($groupedArray); //This will give you the two groupings
foreach($array as $row){
$split = explode(" - ",$row);
$pos = array_search($split[0],$groupedArray);
if($pos !== FALSE){
$groupedArray[$pos][] = $split[1];
}
}
This should give you a full formatted array called $groupedArray where $array is the array you already have.
Hope this helps!